President Trump’s name was added to the premier performing arts center in Washington on Friday, less than a day after its board moved to rename it the Trump-Kennedy Center.
The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts was built as a living memorial to the 35th president, who was assassinated in 1963. It has been generally understood that the power to change the name lies with Congress, which has not acted to rechristen it.
On Friday morning, workers began hauling up large letters spelling out Mr. Trump’s full name and adding them to the white marble facade of the building.
On Thursday, some members of the performing arts center’s board of trustees — the majority of them handpicked by Mr. Trump — got together in Palm Beach and voted to rename the arts institution.
The renaming sparked instant outrage among members of the Kennedy family.
Mr. Trump said on Thursday that he was “surprised” and “honored” that the center’s board, of which he is the chairman, had thought to do this for him, almost as if it were coming out of the blue. And yet he has been referring to the center as “Trump-Kennedy” in social media posts for months — and the new lettering for the building’s face was all ready to go the next morning.
Shawn McCreesh is a White House reporter for The Times covering the Trump administration.
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